Here's How This Latina Entrepreneur Raised $4 Million for Her Startup

For Latina entrepreneur Shadiah Sigala, raising a business is much like raising a child.

Sigala who co-founded HoneyBook, a startup tool for creatives, draws from her experiences as a first-time founder and first-time mother in embarking on her second venture, Kinside, according to an article by Hispanic Network.

Together with Brittney Barrett and Abe Han, Sigala started Kinside's private beta with 10 clients while participating in Y Combinator last summer and since then, it has signed up more than 1,000 employers, underscoring the demand for childcare benefits.

"As a cofounder and as one of the early parents on the team, my pregnancy left me responsible for determining many of our company policies." Sigala shared. "Soon, more babies would start springing up in our employee population, and our family leave, parental benefits and workplace culture matured to meet the need. However, when we sought out a child care benefit to enhance our efforts, we found that nothing quite fit our modern workforce. So I decided to do something about it and start Kinside out of the famed Silicon Valley accelerator, Y Combinator."

In December, Kinside has graduated out of Y Combinator and has publicly launched with a total of $4 million in VC funding raised in just over 18 months along with $3 million in a new funding round led by Initialized Capital. Kinside wants to help both parents and the companies that employ them with a platform that not only enables families to get the most out of their family care benefits, but also find the right providers for their kids.

"I've learned that the desire to be the best for your children is universal, and it transcends job title, salary, race, personal beliefs, location," explains Sigala.

In her interview with Forbes, Sigala shares the four major reasons behind the success of starting and raising funds for her second startup.

Learn from your past experiences

Sigala noted, one should not be afraid to use prior experiences and transferable skillsets whether from past startups or corporate settings because these will serve as backbones of success in future endeavors.

"My first startup, HoneyBook, was a crash course in scaling a product and company quickly-from learning about organizational best practices to managing teams, and making executive decisions," shares Sigala. "Today, I have the benefit of pattern recognition in a way that's doubled our pace. We have gone from 10 beta employers to over 1,000 in fewer than 18 months."

The right co-founders

According to Sigala, her first company, HoneyBook, has taught her the importance of building supportive communities around creatives which is also useful for founders of startups.

"My secret weapon is my cofounders," explains Sigala. "I lean on them to steer the ship, make important decisions, and think through tough challenges. It doesn't hurt that they are both black-belts, wicked smart, and incredibly funny."

Figure out what grounds you

An entrepreneur's journey may have high times that is why it is important to figure out what grounds you during the lower moments. It will help you hold on and keep going and for Sigala, her experience growing up Latinx plays a big part in helping shape her perspective as an entrepreneur.

Don't be afraid of having big profit dreams

Sigala's advice for other Latinx entrepreneurs is don't forget to dream big and act on those dreams.

"Make sure your venture has big money potential," said Sigala. "I fear too many Latinas get tracked into service-oriented ventures that are either non-profits, or not highly profitable in nature. There is nothing more empowering (to yourself, to your children, to your family) than having financial freedom."